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Congregational Leadership Team Writes President-Elect Trump

The Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet sent the following letter to President-Elect Donald J. Trump, urging him to "fully embrace the Syrian refugees fleeing violence and hatred and welcome them into to the sanctuary of our country." We further encourage him to increase the number of refugees who will be accepted beyond the current 10,000 refugee quota.

November 9, 2016

President-Elect Donald J. Trump
725 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 20022

Dear President-Elect Trump:

Congratulations and blessings on your work ahead as the 45th president of the United States of America. As you prepare to lay out the roadmap for your presidency and work with Congress; we, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, reach out to you in these early days since your election. We urge you and your administration to fully embrace the Syrian refugees fleeing violence and hatred and welcome them into the sanctuary of our country.

The Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, joining with our 1,100 vowed religious members, live out our charism of love of God and love of the Dear Neighbor without distinction. We stand in solidarity with our Syrian Refugee sisters and brothers at this time of their suffering and need. We will not distinguish people by religion, color or creed when they cry out for mercy. Let us all respond to our Dear Neighbors with love in their hour of greatest need.

We were challenged and inspired by Pope Francis in his address to Congress on September 24, 2015 when he implored: “Our world is facing a refugee crisis of a magnitude not seen since the Second World War. This presents us with great challenges and many hard decisions. … We must not be taken aback by their numbers, but rather view them as persons, seeing their faces and listening to their stories, trying to respond as best we can to their situation. To respond in a way which is always humane, just and fraternal. We need to avoid a common temptation nowadays: to discard whatever proves troublesome. Let us remember the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you” (Mt 7:12).

Therefore, we ask you as the 45th president of our nation, to strongly support the Syrian refugees. We also ask that you increase the number of refugees from the quota of 10,000 which was allotted for this coming year. We feel that this would be a telling sign of your new administration’s good will to these Syrian refugees fleeing a brutal civil war and who are themselves victims of ISIS.